Society of General Internal Medicine

Don’t recommend cancer screening in adults with life expectancy of less than 10 years.

Screening for cancer can be lifesaving in otherwise healthy at-risk patients. While certain screening tests lead to a reduction in cancer-specific mortality, which emerges years after the test is performed, they expose patients to immediate potential harms. Patients with life expectancies of less than 10 years are unlikely to live long enough to derive the distant benefit from screening. Furthermore, these patients are more likely to experience the harms since patients with limited life expectancy are more likely to be frail and more susceptible to complications of testing and treatments. Therefore the balance of potential benefits and harms does not favor cancer screening in patients with life expectancies of less than 10 years.

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An ad hoc committee of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) was impaneled, taking advantage of the clinical expertise of members from the Clinical Practice Committee and Evidence-Based Medicine Task Force within the Society. Members of the ad hoc committee were then solicited to determine possible topics for consideration. The topics chosen were selected to meet the goals of the Choosing Wisely campaign, utilizing the unique clinical perspective of members of the Society in ambulatory general medicine as well as hospital-based practice. The final topics were selected by a vote of committee members based on the strength of the existing evidence, the unique standing members of the Society have in addressing the clinical topics selected, as well as contributions the recommendations would make in terms of patient safety, quality and economic impact. The final recommendations were approved by the governing Council of SGIM.